Silence and Nothing More
by Architect Eyes
Summary: Short story. First posted, millionth written. R&R welcome.


Silence and nothing more.  
  
Walking alone in the town, this ominous quote rang throughout my head. That was all I heard, anyway: silence and nothing more.  
  
My footsteps I could hear, sure; but there were no other signs of life here.  
  
My name is Nathan Hyde. This was supposed to be the town where I was to meet my brother. A thick snow was falling, and it was almost impossible to see. Yet, the air was peculiarly hot. I didn't want to risk catching the snowflakes on my tongue: maybe a local nuclear plant had exploded and these were leaves of asbestos.  
  
I had never been to Silent Hill before: never even heard of the place. I live in Brahms. It was almost like the town appeared overnight. I checked my old maps to the place and none of them showed Silent Hill. But, trust Billy (my brother) to want to meet me in a strange place.  
  
Billy is slightly younger than I am: only four years my junior. He was always the adventurer type; and I was always the one to follow hesitantly. So when he told me to meet him in Silent Hill, I had no other choice but to follow.  
  
Our intentions were to have me follow his car in mine, separately, but since the snow was so bad, I quickly lost sight of him and was left to follow the one road leading to Silent Hill. I wasn't driving for long when, out of nowhere, my car began to fail, and the radio would not work. The only sound it would make was the wailing and crying of some alien broadcast.  
  
There wasn't really much I could do. No matter how many times I pressed the pedals of my car, no matter how many times I turned on the ignition, nothing would happen. I got so angry that I hit the steering wheel, but, naturally, that didn't do anything except make me feel slightly vented.  
  
I stepped out of my vehicle and decided to walk the rest of the way to Silent Hill. That turned out to be one of the worst mistakes I ever made.  
  
I tried to keep an ear out for my brother's car, but I couldn't hear anything. It was as if the whole entire world had collapsed into some wicked void. Only the howling of the wind was present. Nothing stirred.  
  
As I walked towards the town, I noticed that it became increasingly dark and foreboding. I had no flashlight with me. The darkness became so intense that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I even lost my sense of direction. I could no longer distinguish up or down, left nor right. Holding my arms out in front of me, I began to amble along and quickly picked up my pace until I hit something. I felt around a little bit and realised it was a brick wall of some kind.  
  
I began to walk around the outside of the wall so I could find some opening. It turned out it was the wall to an abandoned church. The door would not open, for it was boarded shut, so, with all my might, I threw my body into it until I fell inside.  
  
A single candle was lit in the centre of the room. My shadow was cast behind me like some sort of hideous demon looming over me. I began to walk towards the candle; my eyes squinted to get readjusted to the light. I put my hands in the flame to feel the warmth and comfort of the light. A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I turned around to see who or what it was. Startled, it was Billy.  
  
'Billy, what the hell are you doing!?' I demanded.  
  
'What does it look like I'm doing? I've been here for hours. Where were you?'  
  
'My car broke down, and I approached the town by foot.'  
  
'That always happens. You're such a klutz.' Billy began to walk away from me and seemed to melt into the darkness. I asked where Billy was, but he would not reply. It was as if he disappeared before my very eyes.  
  
'Billy, this is not funny.'  
  
No reply.  
  
I took the candelabra as my only source of light and began to search the room of the church. He wasn't there. I didn't even hear his footsteps leave the room. I felt no presence inside. What was going on? I found a town map with bloody fingerprints on the edges of the paper. It unnerved me to pick it up, but I had no knowledge of the town, and I figured this was the only way I was going to get anywhere fast.  
  
Trekking slowly on foot around the town, I came upon dead ends and both locked and boarded doors. No-one was in this town but Billy and me. And I was starting to wonder if Billy was here after all.  
  
I ran through all the possibilities of what could've happened. Billy's car might have broken down and had to turn back. He might have gotten lost as well. It was impossible to determine the circumstances of where he was and what he was doing. I was extremely frustrated.  
  
Finally, I found a lonely house overlooking the town lake with its door open. Determined to find Billy, I mustered up the courage to enter it.  
  
There were no other rooms in the house: only a stairwell leading up into more darkness. The candle was still burning bright and seemed to never melt. What has happened to this town? Where were all its residents, and why weren't the doors opening? Was I dreaming? That's it. I fell asleep before leaving and I am at home, safe and sound inside my bed, wrapped in a cocoon of blankets and sheets.  
  
I ran up the stairs until my legs began to feel like anchors. The muscles in my legs were hot and ached, but I had to continue. The further up I ventured, the louder I shouted Billy's name. Finally, on what seemed like the 30th story of the house, I heard what sounded like a man crying.  
  
'Billy? Billy! Is that you?'  
  
No reply.  
  
'Billy, please. answer me. Billy, where are you?'  
  
Departing the stairs, I entered a hallway encrusted with damp planks of wood, and the smell of cedar burning was prominent.  
  
The longer I walked, the longer the hallway seemed. but the sobbing was getting louder. At the end of the hallway, there was a single, heavy metal door. It was extremely difficult to open, as if someone was holding it shut from behind. After much persuasion, I managed to get inside the room.  
  
Unlike the rest of the town and the house, this room had light. There was one light bulb dangling from the ceiling, giving the room an eerie yellow glow to it. There was a pram in the middle of the room, and I wearily approached it. The crying was coming from inside!  
  
'Billy.?' I inched up towards the pram, threw back the sheet and found what looked like the remains of a human castration. I gagged and shrunk back away from the pram. I huddled up in the corner of the room, crying and feeling the pain as if it were I who was castrated. I ached all over.  
  
I looked up momentarily, and the pram was gone. In its place was a human figure, but despite the light hitting the figure, it was as dark as a shadow.  
  
'Billy? Billy, what is going on!?' I stood up onto my jelly legs and approached the figure. I reached out to touch the figure, and when I did, my hand sunk into its body. It was cold as ice.  
  
'B-Billy?' I had the feeling it wasn't him.  
  
'Billy is here. Billy is inside me. Can't you feel him?' the voice said.  
  
I could feel nothing but cold and nothingness, as if my hand was being sucked into some sort of vacuum. The figure emitted a piercing shriek that cut through my soul. The room melted away.  
  
I was lying on gravel. Rain was falling hard onto my face, stinging my cheeks. It was dark no more. The ground was solid, but it felt as if I were falling. Where was I? I examined my surroundings. How did I end up outside? There were trees on both sides of me and a path in front of me. I got up and walked forward.  
  
Another black figure was off in the distance, but I couldn't tell if it was Billy or not. A dense fog was enshrouding the entire area. But, the closer I got to the figure, the more the shape became distinguishable.  
  
'Billy.'  
  
'I'm here,' he said.  
  
'Where were you!? I was looking for you, and I couldn't find you.'  
  
'I have something for you.' He handed me a pistol. He faded away again.  
  
'Billy. no.'  
  
I had to continue forward, Billy or no Billy. I pressed forward for what seemed like hours until I chanced upon the same house before I awoke on the gravel. Entering the house, I found a long table with a man at the other end. His head was bowed and muttering.  
  
'Billy? Is that you?' I approached the man, trying to get a grasp of what he was saying, but it sounded like gibberish to me. I grabbed his shoulder, and the muttering stopped.  
  
'Billy?' I shook the figure harder, but he refused to look at me.  
  
'You. You. You. You.' the man repeated over and over again. It was driving me insane.  
  
'What about me!?' I demanded. 'What did I do!?'  
  
'You. tried. to. but. you. you. you.' His voiced echoed in my brain until it began to hurt. It was as if some horrible bird was pecking inside my skull, picking pieces of my brain to feast on.  
  
'What. Billy, what!? Answer me!!!!!' I held the pistol to his head and shot repeatedly until there was one bullet left.  
  
'You weren't joking. Why did you. you.' The man rasped out, still alive.  
  
'Billy. I didn't mean to. I mean. I was only a child. I didn't know what I was doing.'  
  
'You killed me. You killed me with that pistol you're holding right now. Why.?'  
  
'Billy. it was 16 years ago. I didn't know what I was doing, I swear. I was just playing with it, and it went off. I didn't mean to. I.'  
  
Billy was a figment of my imagination this whole time. Slowly I slid the pistol into my mouth and pulled the trigger, dispelling my final bullet.  
  
My story ends there. 


End file.
